Another post about first jobs made me think this might be interesting.

So what was your first job and when?

I was 15, with a work permit. McD's!!!!! Couldn't wait to start making my own money so I could buy the cool clothes I wanted that my parents refused to pay for.

By Trina~moderator on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 07:40 pm:

I was 15, and worked at a snack bar at a stock car race track. LOL! My second job was at McDonald's.

By Happynerdmom on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 07:55 pm:

I babysat a ton starting at 13, but my first "real" job was a cashier at Walgreen's when I was 17. That was in the day before scanners. You had to put in every price by hand, and you had to memorize the weekly ads so you would know what was on sale. Good times, good times.

By Jjandmom on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 07:57 pm:

I worked when I was 13 through a summer scam program I worked 8am till 2:30 I paid for all my school clothes and supplies I wanted for school. I am 38 and out of 25 years of working there was 2 years I haven't worked and I guess it will be a couple more till the baby is in school. I'm going a little crazy cause not use to being able to stay home.

By Bellajoe on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 07:57 pm:

I was 16 , and I only remember the age because I got to drive to work, I was a Hostess at Bob Evans and HATED EVERY MINUTE OF IT! I only worked there for the summer.

By Imamommyx4 on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 07:57 pm:

I was 16 and got my first job as an assistant in a hospital laboratory doing paperwork and other grunt work on weekends and 1 evening a week. When I turned 17 they taught me how to draw blood. Now that was cool! But that was 30 years ago!!!

By Bellajoe on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 07:59 pm:

Donna, did you mean summer camp? I hope it wasn't a summer SCAM!

By Annie2 on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 08:13 pm:

At 15, through high school, I worked at a local, family-owned pharmacy. I would deliver Rx's to the nursing homes, to people's houses, ran the register, etc. I loved it!

By Jjandmom on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 08:29 pm:

Bellajoe it was summer scam program it was held through the summer when school was out we had 1 week off and then went to work then worked until 1 week before school started we got paid every 2 weeks. Now they don't have that anymore but it was something to look forward to. All of the kids at school were able to work we just had to fill papers out before school was out.

By Tink on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 08:46 pm:

I was 15 and I worked as a camp counselor and KP. I loved it. All the girls lived together in a cabin all summer and we spent our off days at the lake, watched movies projected on a sheet in the ampitheater, kissed boys by the campfire. ;) It was like something out of a sappy movie. I LOVED it!

By Kay on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 09:15 pm:

I was 16, and I wrapped gifts at a department store.

By Cybermommyx4 on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 09:58 pm:

I babysat at 12 and worked as a volunteer "candy-striper" at the hospital, but my first REAL job was at 13 - a chambermaid! It was hard work, but the tips were great...at 15 I became a bank teller and had more "prestige" but got paid less, lol!

By Colette on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 10:05 pm:

16 Baskin robbins at the mall. They actually had us weigh our scoops to make sure they were the correct 7oz weight allowed.

I quit when we were required to wear "try our pie" buttons.

By Yjja123 on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 10:23 pm:

Volunteered as a candy striper and at the ASPCA for several years.
First paying job was a short stint at an ice cream shop (owner made advances on me so I quit).
Second paying job was at a drug store.

By Marcia on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 10:26 pm:

I started babysitting at 11, but got a job working at a local tennis court when I was about 14.

By Cat on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 10:33 pm:

I also babysat for several years before my first "real" job. I worked in the snack bar/deli of Meijer when I was 16 until I graduated and left to join the Air Force. Oh, the memories...

By Kateg on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 10:35 pm:

First real job was an elementary school secretary's assistant when I was 17...loved it!

By Crystal915 on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 10:37 pm:

My family owns a general store and deli, I started working there when I was 12 or 13. I LOVED it, and worked full time while in high school.

By Tsa on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 10:40 pm:

At the public library!!! It only lasted a week. You can't talk in the library and that is impossible for me. Then I found my calling and waitressed my way thru college. I still miss waiting tables.

By Reds9298 on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 11:05 pm:

I loved working at McD's because all my friends worked there also and I worked the grill. It was always really busy and I liked that. I still like being busy all the time!

My second job and longest job outside of being a teacher was as a pianist at a ballet school. I worked that job from about 16-20-ish. (In addition to other jobs for work study, but that was the most hours) Everyday after school and Saturday mornings. The hours were always the same, I got to play, and made tons of friends. Plus the owner became like a second grandma to me while I was there.

Colette, your "pie" button story had me rolling!!!

I like hearing everyone's responses!

By Mrsheidi on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 11:21 pm:

This is fun to hear everyone's responses...since being a SAHM, "working" is 24/7 now and there is A LOT more responsibility! LOL

My brother and I were 9 and 11 selling "cinnamon toothpicks" and gum at school to all our classmates. We would buy regular toothpicks and soak them in cinnamon oil and then sell them for 10 cents a piece. The gum for 15 cents, I believe. I kid you not when I say it helped pay the rent/electricity for my mom. (She was a single mom and had a mental illness that went undiagnosed for some time, so we moved every year, sometimes more.)

I was a nanny during the summers in high school to a mormon family of 8. Talk about laundry! They were really good kids though.

My first job that required a W-2 form was a bus"boy" job at a Country Club. Hated it...being on my feet all day, smelling like dried food. Yuck. I used to take "bathroom breaks" just so I could sit down.

After that, I was a daycamp counselor and found my love for teaching!

By Breann on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 11:28 pm:

I was 18 for my first job, and was lucky enough to be hired by a small long haul trucking company to type up their manifests. That was before computers were super popular, and we did it all on a regular typewriter, lol.
I worked as a cashier at a grocery store when I was 19 for a few months. Funny, I really enjoyed that job, and sometimes miss it. Dorky, I know.
After the grocery store, I got a wonderful job as an office assistant. I loved it there. Stayed for about 9 months, then quit to get married.
I've been a stay at home mom since I was 20

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 11:57 pm:

First I babysat. One summer (1976) I was a mother's helper for a well-to-do family in northern Illinois. Then I was an activity aide at a nursing home. I brought people to Bingo on Saturdays and took them to church on Sundays. When I was done with my work, I could visit with people. It was a pretty nice job.

I'll never forget that the summer job was 1976, because it was a Summer Olympic year and Nadia Comeneci got several perfect 10's. I was 16.)

By Rayelle on Friday, November 9, 2007 - 02:57 am:

I was 16 and worked in the mens department at Sears. It was alot of fun, I made friends and I was in the mall. Sometimes I forgot I was making money! I worked there until I had my second baby, I had only been working 15 hours a week anyway.

By My2girlygirls on Friday, November 9, 2007 - 07:26 am:

I worked in an ice cream shop but being only 5' tall I had a hard time reaching into the back of the ice cream case and went home nightly with a line of ice cream right under my boobs! Then I was an assistant in a salon for a few years. I have had some cruddy jobs... Snack bar at Putt Putt Mini golf and I ran birthday parties, pet dept. of a store (hated that job), gourmet popcorn shop(hated that one too). I have been home since my having my girls. My DH likes to tell people that I have been on maternity leave for 13 years!! I love it!

By Kym on Friday, November 9, 2007 - 08:17 am:

My family always had businesses, so really I have worked since I was about 5 doing little things for the hotel or restaurant we were always on the 'payroll" for tax free savings But at age 11 I decided to break out from the family business and worked for my mom's bf who owned a hair salon, I swept, did the brushes in the blue stuff and dusted! I also babysat from age 11! I have worked non stop in some capacity (plus momming) since I was 11, but never full time 9-5 type boss, kinda funny.

By Melanie on Friday, November 9, 2007 - 09:30 am:

I was 16 and worked as an aide at a daycare center. I loved it. The kids ranged in age from 3-7.

By Sandysmom on Friday, November 9, 2007 - 10:23 am:

I started babysitting at 12 or 13, but at 16, I was working as a shampoo girl in a salon.

By Karen~admin on Friday, November 9, 2007 - 10:36 am:

I babysat from age 11 on........when I was 13-15, I was booked every weekend and a lot of weeknights - we lived in a family apartment complex and a lot of the families had babies and young children. I used to love it.

When I was 16 I started working at a pre-school, in the after-school-care program. I loved that too. I did that until I graduated from high school.

By Ginny~moderator on Friday, November 9, 2007 - 11:01 am:

Babysitting for a WOHM's children after school, at age 13, and then, immediately after my 16th birthday (legal working age for students in Illinois at that time), in a store selling Christmas decorations and stuff, until Christmas. Then, after school at the A&P as a cashier (and it was a union job, no less). At that time, that meant Monday and Thursday evenings until 9 p.m. and all day Saturday; the only evenings supermarkets were open, and none were open on Sundays. That too was in the days before scanners, and there were no moving belts to move the groceries, just a wooden L-shaped bar - the casher pulled on the handle of the bar by the cash register to move the groceries down the counter. Also long before plastic bags

By Rayelle on Friday, November 9, 2007 - 02:11 pm:

Oh, I met my dh at my first job! He was working at a seasonal calendar kiosk in the same mall.

By Cocoabutter on Friday, November 9, 2007 - 02:22 pm:

Kentucky Fried Chicken was my first paying job. Before that I volunteered at the local hospital as a candy striper.

By Brandy on Friday, November 9, 2007 - 11:11 pm:

detassling was my first job but of course it was only in the summer...i worked at sherrill's eat here and get gas = ) in tipton indiana for my first job job = )

By Boxzgrl on Saturday, November 10, 2007 - 01:53 am:

My first job was at 16 as a kennel technician at a pet store.... where I met DH! He worked in the fish/reptile department. Good times back then! I worked with the best people and even my boss was amazing. I had known him since I was 12, when he worked at another franchise pet store I used to visit after school to play with the animals.

By Reds9298 on Saturday, November 10, 2007 - 07:50 am:

Brandy, my parents would never let me detassle and it made me so mad! The money was so good and all my friends did it, but my parents didn't like the idea of me doing 'manual labor'. LOL!

If Natalie wants to detassle, she can go for it!

By Brandy on Saturday, November 10, 2007 - 01:27 pm:

when natalie get's to that age i doubt they will still have to manually do it lol = ) they will have machines i'm sure ...but yeah it's okay it wasn't too exciting or anything lol oh my gosh getting up so early ewww...

By Mommmie on Saturday, November 10, 2007 - 09:35 pm:

Age 16, McDonalds. They worked around my drill team schedule which was nice. I worked there 9 months.

By Unschoolmom on Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 06:46 am:

I took in money at a little local public pool. It was an outdoors pool so it was just a summer thing.

By Kaye on Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 10:24 am:

Babysitting was my first job, I started at 11 and worked doing that through college on the side, and even on occasion as an adult.

My grandparents had a coffeshop and I waited, bussed tables and ran the cash register.

But my first non family regular job was working in the show room of a handwoven wool rug factory. I was the weekend girl, I would open shop, be there alone, in case someone wanted to look. Most of our business was catalog special orders, on a busy weekend i would have 4-5 people come in. I got paid 5 an hour of 10% commission which ever was highest. Only 1 time did I get commision. I worked there 2 years.

Shortly after starting that job, I got a second job, I gave tours of "Indian Pictographs", people would sign up for tour times, we would meet them at the river, take them on a 1/2 mile maybe 1 mile pontoon boat ride, go to the bluffs, give a 1 hour tour of the over 300 paintings on the rocks. I knew more about symbology that any high schooler needed to know! I was on several tv shows, the most famous being "texas country reporter". LOL

By Hol on Monday, November 12, 2007 - 09:10 am:

I scooped ice cream and made hamburgers and hot dogs at a small privately owned ice cream place. The owner was my Uncle's neighbour, so my cousin and I both worked there. Of course, it was seasonal.

Then I worked as a clerk in a drug store. The manager was very excentric and was obsessed with people stealing. He would CONSTANTLY warn us to look out for "flim flam artists". LOL!

Then I graduated from HS and went to work as a telephone operator. Back then, they had huge switchboards where you plugged in the connection, and people had to call the operator to make long distance phone calls. You had a little flag you had to put up when you had to go to the bathroom, so a supervisor could temporarily replace you. I remember going through the training program and learning the different sounds of quarters, dimes and nickels being dropped into a payphone, so we'd know if they put in the correct amount before we could connect them! LOL!

How far we have come in forty years! LOL!

By Bobbie~moderatr on Monday, November 12, 2007 - 11:53 am:

I started babysitting when I was 9 years old, very mature. My dad was in the Air Force and I always had a weekend job because his friends/fellow Air Force people loved me. I was booked way ahead, to the point I had a calendar of who I was watching when.

By the time I was 11 I was doing a paper route and I did that for three years until we moved. I made pretty good money for a kid. It is amazing the money the men in the barracks would hand out in tips. My parents helped me divide up my money and I opened a savings account and in three year I had saved up almost $600 dollars. Which I turned around at 17 and used to buy my first car.

When we moved I was 13 and I got a job watching kids for a single mom daily after school. I would get off the bus and head straight to her house and be there before her three kids got off of their bus. I had three other families I babysat for in the evenings and on the weekends. We lived in an aparement complex and I was one of the only teens that lived their, yeah me.

Then we moved again when I was 15 and I babysat for a few neighbors on a regular basis. One couple bowled on thursday nights, another the DH played in a band on Friday nights and another couple was involved in some kind of support group/club and they had weekly meetings on Sunday afternoons.

When I was 17 I got my first real job. I worked in the childrens department at Big Wheel (department store) for two months, advanced to cashier and then to service clerk all with in 6 months. I worked there until I was 19 and I quit to stay home and take care of DD. I hated leaving her alone and DH and I were working so that we never saw each other, it was rough and I just couldn't do it any more.

Basically, I made my own money since I was 9 years old and was able to buy my own things. Which was a good thing since my mom preferred not to have to buy the things I wanted/liked but that is a totally different story.

By Bobbie~moderatr on Monday, November 12, 2007 - 11:55 am:

When I was 11 and delivering the papers I was still babysitting on a regular basis too.

By Hol on Monday, November 12, 2007 - 06:31 pm:

Ginny, again you trigger memories long forgotten. LOL! We also had a system here, where they put all of your PAPER grocery bags, full of your purchases, and they put them in this rectangular tub. They gave you a tag with a number on it, matching the number on the tub. You went and got your car and drove up to the front of the store.The tub was sent out on this track with metal rollers, and a clerk was there to load them into your car after you gave him your tag. I don't know if you tipped them or not. I didn't know about such things back then. I am talking mid to late fifties.

By Bobbie~moderatr on Monday, November 12, 2007 - 07:57 pm:

Hol, I am only 36 and we had a store in the town I went to high school in that had the same system. People were paid to stand under a drive up thing to load the bags into your car. You handed them the plastic card thing about the size of a envelope with the number on it, they pulled the tubs and loaded the car and you never even had to get out of the car. They had a no tipping policy at our store, there were signs up on the wall, with directions on how to safely get your groceries and leave.

By Melanie on Monday, November 12, 2007 - 08:21 pm:

Ditto Bobbie, Hol. I am 34 and remember the grocery store where the groceries were put in the tub and sent out on the metal rollers. I was very little, but I thought that was the coolest thing.

By Luvn29 on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - 09:35 am:

My first job was as a cashier at Hardees. I worked the drive through. That's where I met my now husband. He was in lower management and it was totally against the rules for us to date! So we kept it under wraps until he moved on to a better job!

Okay, a bit off subject, but I love my story... We were allowed to wear Santa hats instead of our usual visors during the holidays, so I did. I laid it on the counter while I was doing my "closing" duties because it was getting in the way. Now dh and I had become pretty good friends at this point. Well, it was time for me to leave, and I went to get my Santa hat and it was gone. So I went to the back where all the extras were stored because I just knew he had taken it. He held it above my reach (he's taller) and told me he'd let me have it back for a kiss. So I stood on my tip toes and kissed him very fast on the lips. I got my santa hat and a husband!

By Bobbie~moderatr on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - 10:26 am:

Adena, LOL Bad girl.

By Boxzgrl on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - 10:29 am:

Mmmmm.... Hardees! I can't wait for my Christmas vacation in N. Carolina so I can eat Hardees again! LOL (Totally off topic, sorry!)

By Luvn29 on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - 10:34 am:

Ugh! To this day, neither my hubby, nor I, can touch Hardees food. Nothing's wrong with it, but we just looked at it and ate it way too much when we worked there!

By Christylee on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - 04:30 pm:

My first job besides babysitting was at Gerland's (a grocery store), I was a cashier and all my closest friends worked there with me. We had so much fun!! Since then I've worked at a day care, Chuck E Cheese (quit because they wouldn't give me off for graduation), a hospital on an answering service, an office manager, and now I'm a surgical tech. I think that's it. lol... oh wait can't forget the promotional ad company. I'm considering going for nursing now, we will see what happens there.

By Breann on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - 10:25 pm:

I had to google "detassler" to see what it is. I have never heard that before. Quite interesting